My story
Fr. Jason E. Brauninger is a priest of the Society of Jesus. He also is a certified family and emergency nurse practitioner and a clinical assistant professor at the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing.
Interview by Tim Bannon
Photo by Joel Wintermantle
We got the call from the ambulance company that an 18-year-old had gone into cardiac arrest after a drug overdose and that he’d be there any minute.
I was working in an Atlanta hospital, studying to be an emergency nurse practitioner. I was also an ordained priest, but nobody in the emergency room knew that.
As soon as the ambulance brought him in, we—the physicians and the other nurses—started working on this young man, doing CPR and all the life-saving measures we could. We worked for about an hour. Finally we decided there was nothing else we could do and so we called it. He had passed away.
We cleaned up the patient and got him ready for his parents, who were delayed in getting there.
I remember when his mother and father came into the room. She was prayerful and spiritual and just said, “Lord, if this is your will…” She was very accepting of it. The father was very quiet.
In the middle of this room there were five of us standing there. We were waiting to see if they had any questions or if there was anything they might need from us.
And then the mother, out of the blue, asked if we would pray with her and asked if anyone knew the Hail Mary.
I wasn’t expecting anybody else to step up. And nobody did. So I said, yes, I know the Hail Mary and we prayed what they were thinking, but I felt an overwhelming sense of calm, a sense of awe.
After that moment of prayer and after spending more time with them, we left the room so she and her husband could be with their son.
Those moments of God really stick with you.
For me, it was an opportunity to say I am here for you, in a spiritual way.
I hoped it also provided an opportunity for the others to see that this provider was willing to pray, to not be afraid of talking about spiritual things with our patients.
It reminds me that, as nurses in the Jesuit tradition, we’re carrying on the healing mission of a higher power: Christ. And even though I wasn’t able to heal this young man, this was part of the healing ministry, to be with his parents, to help them spiritually.
Research has shown that if we answer the question of spirituality for patients, whatever their religion, they heal better, they feel better, they die better. There’s more peace.
It was also a solidification that these two things—being a priest and being a nurse—do work together, and these opportunities to work with the patients, and also with my colleagues, are invaluable.
Fr. Jason E. Brauninger is a priest of the Society of Jesus. He also is a certified family and emergency nurse practitioner and a clinical assistant professor at the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing.
Interview by Tim Bannon
Photo by Joel Wintermantle
We got the call from the ambulance company that an 18-year-old had gone into cardiac arrest after a drug overdose and that he’d be there any minute.
I was working in an Atlanta hospital, studying to be an emergency nurse practitioner. I was also an ordained priest, but nobody in the emergency room knew that.
As soon as the ambulance brought him in, we—the physicians and the other nurses—started working on this young man, doing CPR and all the life-saving measures we could. We worked for about an hour. Finally we decided there was nothing else we could do and so we called it. He had passed away.
We cleaned up the patient and got him ready for his parents, who were delayed in getting there.
I remember when his mother and father came into the room. She was prayerful and spiritual and just said, “Lord, if this is your will…” She was very accepting of it. The father was very quiet.
In the middle of this room there were five of us standing there. We were waiting to see if they had any questions or if there was anything they might need from us.
And then the mother, out of the blue, asked if we would pray with her and asked if anyone knew the Hail Mary.
I wasn’t expecting anybody else to step up. And nobody did. So I said, yes, I know the Hail Mary and we prayed what they were thinking, but I felt an overwhelming sense of calm, a sense of awe.
After that moment of prayer and after spending more time with them, we left the room so she and her husband could be with their son.
Those moments of God really stick with you.
For me, it was an opportunity to say I am here for you, in a spiritual way.
I hoped it also provided an opportunity for the others to see that this provider was willing to pray, to not be afraid of talking about spiritual things with our patients.
It reminds me that, as nurses in the Jesuit tradition, we’re carrying on the healing mission of a higher power: Christ. And even though I wasn’t able to heal this young man, this was part of the healing ministry, to be with his parents, to help them spiritually.
Research has shown that if we answer the question of spirituality for patients, whatever their religion, they heal better, they feel better, they die better. There’s more peace.
It was also a solidification that these two things—being a priest and being a nurse—do work together, and these opportunities to work with the patients, and also with my colleagues, are invaluable.